


A Simple Text

by Digi9797



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Mutual Pining, Persona 5 Protagonist is from Inaba, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-06 19:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20296642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Digi9797/pseuds/Digi9797
Summary: Ryuji wants to text Akira and tell him he’ll be able to come visit him soon but Akira has been avoiding texting anyone lately and that has Ryuji worried.





	1. Midnight Talk

**Author's Note:**

> All the way back near the end of 2018 this fic was my first ever attempt at writing a fanfic but I got stuck at a certain part and gave up and just let it sit in a text doc on my laptop but now after probably a year it's finally DONE!!! But to me the ending feels like it should be continued so there is going to be a second chapter!!

It was almost midnight yet he’s still up, it’s not uncommon for Ryuji to be up this late, but tonight was different, Ryuji wanted to text Akira to tell him he’d be able to come visit Inaba soon.

For a long time now Akira seems to have been pretty upset, he says he’s not but he can’t hide it, at least not as good as he normally does, so maybe it’d be good to pay him a visit but Ryuji can’t seem to bring himself to even type a single word.

Akira hasn’t been responding to or even reading anyone’s texts at all for about little over half a month, he’s been completely silent, something has to be wrong, Ryuji felt he should be there for him but wondered if he would even want him there for him, he couldn’t just leave him alone though, so many feelings and worries ran through Ryuji’s head and he didn’t know why.

“Calm down, it’s just a simple effing text it’s not that big of a deal!” he hissed at himself in a low enough voice as to not wake up his Mom, it’s Sunday, so she’d upset if she found out he was up this late on a school night so he has to be quiet, or at least as quiet as he can be.

“It’s just a text.” he told himself, more calm this time.

“Plus, we haven’t seen each other in months! I’m sure I’d thrilled to see me!! Right?” Ryuji’s stomach twisted at the thought of Akira not wanting to see him, is that why he hasn’t been talking to anyone? Does he not want to see them? 

”Does...does he not want to see me?” Ryuji went silent at that thought. 

“…..Maybe….maybe I shouldn’t text him tonight…” Ryuji whispered somewhat sadly to himself as he set his phone on the floor and turned onto his side, his old bed creaking because of the change in his position.

A few minutes after he closed his eyes to go to sleep he heard his phone, which he had set to silent, vibrate, Ryuji jolted forward from his bed in surprise, his mind raced with panic not sure what to do if it was Akira, he quickly reached for his phone, the brightness of the phone screen hurting his eyes as it turned on and once his eyes adjusted to the brightness he read the notification, and his stomach dropped.

It was Akira.

**[Akira]:** Hey.

Ryuji just stared at his phone not really knowing what to say back, especially since the text was so nonchalant after he had been silent for so long, he knew something must be wrong but he knew couldn’t ask Akira what since he knew he wouldn’t be honest with Ryuji so he thought about asking him subtly but subtlety wasn’t exactly Ryuji’s strong suit so he had no idea how to approach this situation.

“I’ll just...talk to him normally.” Ryuji began to type.

**[Ryuji]:** Sup man?

**[Akira]:** Nothing, just felt like talking.

**[Ryuji]:** Really? This late at night?

**[Akira]:** Yeah.

**[Ryuji]:** You’re weird.

**[Akira]:** You too.

**[Ryuji]:** HEY!

**[Ryuji]:** Anyway, why you wanna talk?

**[Akira]:** I just

**[Akira]:** I just wanted to.

**[Ryuji]:** You ok, man?

Akira didn’t respond right away and for some reason that made Ryuji a little nervous, this whole conversation made him nervous, Akira talked to everyone a little differently and with Ryuji he was always more excited and relaxed but these texts lacked any of that, something must be wrong.

**[Akira]:** I miss you.

**[Ryuji]:** You miss me?

**[Akira]:** Yeah.

**[Ryuji]:** I miss you to, man!

It took another minute for Akira to respond which yet again made Ryuji worry.

**[Akira]:** ...Really?

Ryuji stared at his phone as he felt his heart drop a bit, Akira didn’t think Ryuji missed him?

**[Ryuji]:** Yeah, man! You’re my best friend of course I miss you!!

**[Ryuji]:** Everyone here misses you!!

**[Akira]:** ….Thanks.

**[Akira]:** That means a lot.

Ryuji couldn’t take it anymore, it was now or never, he had to know what was wrong.

**[Ryuji]:** Are you sure you’re ok, man? You’re kinda worrying me…

**[Akira]:** It’s just…

**[Akira]:** Home has been really….stressful…

**[Ryuji]:** You wanna talk about it?

**[Akira]:** Not over text.

**[Ryuji]:** Then how about when I come over to visit you?

**[Akira]:** Visit me?

**[Ryuji]:** Yeah! I was gonna wait to ask you in the morning but I have enough free time coming up to come and visit you soon!!

**[Ryuji]:** That cool with you?

**[Akira]:** ...Yeah.

**[Akira]:** I’d love that.

**[Ryuji]:** Cool! Seeya soon then!!

**[Akira]:** Yeah.

**[Akira]:** See you soon.

**[Akira]:** Hey Ryuji?

**[Ryuji]:** Yeah?

**[Akira]:** Can I tell you something?

**[Ryuji]:** Yeah, man! Shoot.

**[Akira]:** Um

**[Akira]:** Je t'aime.

**[Ryuji]:** What?

**[Ryuji]:** Dude you know I don’t know French.

**[Ryuji]:** What’d you say?

**[Akira]:** I’ll tell you when you come to visit.

**[Ryuji]:** ...Seriously?

**[Akira]:** Yes seriously.

**[Ryuji]:** Fine…

**[Akira]:** I promise I’ll tell you what it means.

**[Ryuji]:** I never said you were lying! I just don’t get why you can’t tell me now.

**[Akira]:** It’s important and I want to tell you in person.

**[Ryuji]:** All right, if it’s that important to you I’ll wait.

**[Akira]:** Thank you.

**[Ryuji]:** No problem, man.

**[Ryuji]:** All right I’m gonna head to bed, my Mom will kill me if she finds me up this late on a school night!

**[Akira]:** Same here.

**[Akira]:** Goodnight Ryuji.

**[Ryuji]:** Night Aki!!

Ryuji sets his phone back down on floor, turns on to his back, runs his hands thought his hair and let’s out a heavy sigh, he didn’t know what to do, he knew he wasn’t the best at talking things out but he couldn’t just do nothing.

“…..It’s Akira….so maybe talking to him about this kind of stuff will be easy…” whispered Ryuji in the hopes it would calm the thoughts racing through his head even if he knew it wasn’t true.

“Ok, ok, ok, ok, I gotta get some sleep…” said Ryuji as he rubbed his eyes with one hand, turned over finally went to sleep.


	2. Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter got super self indulgent and I'm sorry but I'm also not

It’s been a week since that night they had their conversation and Ryuji was now in Akira’s hometown of Inaba and searching for his house, thankfully Akira sent Ryuji his address which made it easier to find, the purpose of this visit was to spend time together after not seeing eachother for so long but Akira was also going to talk to Ryuji about what’s stressing him out to the point he won’t talk to anyone and tell him what that French thing he said meant that was apparently so important he had to tell him in person which Ryuji still found odd.

“Holy crap…” Ryuji finally found Akira’s house, it was big and suggested Akira’s family was well off financially and it wasn’t quite what he expected, although now that he thought about it he didn’t really know what he expected in the first place since Akira _rarely_ talked about his home life while he was in Tokyo which left what his home life was like up to Ryuji and the others imaginations, Ryuji walked up the stairs, knocked on the door, and waited, soon he could hear the sound of heels come to the door and it opened.

“Hello?” he was met by a woman that he assumed to be Akira’s mother, she was tall, wearing glasses, her hair was in a bun and was dark like Akira’s, she was dressed as if she worked at an office, and she looked at Ryuji with a blank expression.

“H-Hi umm I’m Ryuji Sakamoto….I’m a friend of Akira’s…” Ryuji found himself more nervous than he was before due to the cold aura the woman gave off, she just stared at him as if she was studying him, her expression unchanging.

“I don’t recall seeing you live around here.” said Mrs. Kurusu.

“I don’t, we met in Tokyo when he was on….p-probation…” said Ryuji as he realised too late that it might not be a great idea to mention Akira’s probation to his mother, even if he was proven innocent.

“….I see.” Mrs. Kurusu’s voice became icy and after a minute of locking eyes with Ryuji, she stepped to the side to let him in.

“He’s upstairs in his room.” she said pointing to the nearby staircase.

“T-Thanks…” said Ryuji as he stepped in and started towards the stairs.

“I’m going out for the evening and won’t till late at night, _don’t_ make a mess.” she said with a sharp tone as she headed out the door, locking it behind her.

“W-We won’t…” said Ryuji in a nervously before continuing up the stairs now in even more of a hurry to find Akira’s room which ended up not being that hard due to the sign that said ‘Akira’ that hung on his door, he walked up to it and knocked since he didn’t want to scare Akira and add to his apparent stress by barging in.

“W-Who is it?”

“It’s me, Ryuji!” he then heard footsteps come towards the door which was then proceeded by the sound of the door unlocking and when it opened, he found himself standing in front of a _exhausted_ looking Akira, he had bags under his and looked like he could collapse at any minute.

“Hey Ryuji…” said Akira with a small smile.

“Hey Aki…” said Ryuji who returned his smile.

“Come in.”

“Thanks, man.” as Ryuji stepped into the room Akira closed the door and locked it again which worried Ryuji for some reason.

“You can lie on my bed if you want.” said Akira pointing to his bed.

“Thanks.” said Ryuji as he proceeded to make himself at home on his best friends bed and relaxed as the tiredness from walking from the station to the house and the stress from his run in with Mrs. Kurusu left his body, he then looked around and found Akira’s room to be as clean as he expected it to be, there was a large shelf that had a few books and all the souvenirs he had acquired while in Tokyo on it, a few of which Ryuji recognised since he was the one to give them to Akira, his bed was in one the corners of the room and above it was the Rise poster Ann had given him along with an astrology poster, a few feet away from the bed was a desk where Akira was currently sitting, and leaning against the desk was a guitar that a ton of stickers plastered onto it.

“You play guitar?”

“Yeah but I can’t right now.”

“Why not?”

“Because I lost my pick and I hate just using my figures.”

“Why?

“Hurts my figure tips and makes them get all sore.”

“Oh.”

“…..Plus….um…” Akira seemed nervous, and that didn’t go unnoticed by Ryuji, he needed Akira to talk to him if he was going to help him.

“Plus what? Tell me.”

“Y-You know how I said home has been….stressful…”

“...Yeah.”

“I….have a lot of work right now…”

“Work? Like part time?”

“…..No….like study work…”

“Studying?”

“Yeah…” said Akira as he turned his head as if to point out the tons papers and books that laid across his desk that Ryuji somehow didn’t notice when he first entered the room.

“Holy shit….” whispered Ryuji and Akira seemed to lower his head in response.

“Why are you doing so much work?”

“Because….my Mom wants me to succeed in life...at least, that’s what she says.”

“Your Mom?”

“...Yeah.”

“She’s the one who let me in and she seemed really….cold…”

“That’s….a good way to put it…”

“Why the hell is she working you to the bone like this?”

“She’s always had such high expectations of me and I guess after I got back from my probation her expectations increased.”

“And what she thinks if you meet them it’ll make up for you getting arrested?” said Ryuji sounding a bit agitated.

“….Yeah probably…”

“That’s bullshit!!!” yelled Ryuji which caused Akira to flinch and Ryuji immediately regretted raising his voice, he forgot how uncomfortable Akira was with yelling and based on what Akira just told him plus the way she acted to him at the front door Ryuji started to wonder if his discomfort with yelling and his Mom were connected….and he hoped he was wrong…

“S-Sorry! I….forgot you don’t like yelling…”

“I-It’s fine, d-don’t worry…” said Akira who was still a little shaken.

“Hey um….can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you not like it when people yell….because of your Mom?”

“……...Y-Yeah…” said Akira in a quiet voice as if he was trying not to be heard as his body began to shake.

“…..Are you ok?” said Ryuji as he tried his best to bury his rage since he could tell Akira needed comfort right now.

“……..N-No….”

“Come here.” said Ryuji as he turned on to his side and offered his friend a place next to him on the bed.

“H-Huh?”

“Just come here.”

In response Akira simply nodded his head and walked over to his bed and laid next to Ryuji as Ryuji then wrapped his arms around him.

“Now go to sleep.”

“B-But I’m-”

“Don’t tell me you’re not tired with those bags under your eyes, you’re exhausted man, just please, go to sleep.”

“W-What if my Mom comes home early and finds me not working?”

“You’re overthinking things and besides if she does I’ll protect you!” said Ryuji with a small confident smile.

“Heheh s-she’d kill you.” said Akira who manged to give a small chuckle.

“L-Like hell she could! I-I could take her!!” said Ryuji who was failing to hide the fear in his voice which made Akira chuckle more and while Ryuji was serious in his claim of protecting Akira should his mother really come home early he was glad to see his friend laugh even a little.

“Once you get some sleep you can show me around your hometown, ok?”

“Ok...”

“Good, now get some sleep.”

“You won’t go anywhere right?”

“I won’t I promise.”

“…...Good….” said Akira as he drifted off to sleep.

Ryuji laid there with his friend in his arms and was happy to see him finally get some sleep but he felt like there was another reason he was happy but he couldn’t figure out why, he looked at Akira’s sleeping face and suddenly found his cheeks turn pink and his heart race which only made his confusion grow.

“W-Why the hell does Aki look so….cute?” whispered Ryuji in a confused tone, then suddenly Ryuji’s phone went off which surprised him as he quickly reached for his phone in his back pocket and put it on silent, he then looked at Akira and thankfully he did not seem to hear Ryuji’s phone since he was still sound asleep.

“Damm he must have been more tired than I thought…” whispered Ryuji, he then looked at his phone to see he’d gotten a text from his Mom.

**[Mom]:** Hello sweetheart.

**[Ryuji]:** Hey Mom.

**[Mom]:** How are you? Did you arrive safely?

**[Ryuji]:** Yeah I got here safe and I’m good just resting with Aki.

**[Mom]:** Resting? Not out having fun?

**[Ryuji]:** He was pretty tired when I got here so I’m letting him sleep.

**[Mom]:** I see, that’s very kind of you Ryu.

**[Ryuji]:** Well it would be pretty shitty of me to have him show me around town when he could fall over from exhaustion at any minute.

**[Mom]:** Yes that would indeed be pretty shitty of you.

**[Mom]:** Well I hope you and Aki have a good rest.

**[Ryuji]:** Thanks Mom.

**[Mom]:** Love you Ryu.

**[Ryuji]:** Love you too Mom.

Ryuji placed his phone back into his back pocket and then felt Akira rub up against him, he looked to find Akira was awake.

“Oh, shit sorry man did I wake you?” said Ryuji.

“No, you’re fine.” said Akira rubbing his eye.

“You feeling better?”

“Yeah lil bit…”

“You wanna sleep a little longer?”

“Nah I’m fine just lying here with you, is that ok with you?”

“Sure man.”

“....Hey um…you remember how a said something to you in French?”

“Oh, yeah!! You gonna tell me what means or what?”

“Yeah but um…”

“But what?”

“….I’m afraid you’ll hate me…”

“Dude nothing you could ever say would make me hate you.”

“...Really?” said Akira, wide eyed.

“Unless it was something stupid, although if it was something stupid I’d just knock some sense into you till you start saying smart shit again.”

“Hahaha! Thanks…”

“No problem, now tell me what you said.”

“Ok um…..je t'aime means….I love you…”

“……….What?”

“I love you, l-like _love_ love you.”

Ryuji just stared wide eyed at Akira who stared back nervously waiting for a response but Ryuji’s mind was too busy racing to form words, ‘He _loves_ me?’ repeating over and over in his head, and then he started to wonder how _he_ felt and if he returned the feelings, and the more he thought about it the more him returning the feelings made certain things about he’s thought about Akira since he’s met him make more sense…

“U-Um R-Ryuji?” Ryuji snapped back into reality to find Akira looking at him with tears in his eyes and that alone made him realise he had been lost in his thoughts for to long.

“I-I’m sorry- I-I s-shouldn’t have told you, you probably h-hate me, I understand if you w-want to l-leave-” Akira’s voice was shaking as he was trying his hardest not to cry and it made Ryuji feel awful for going quiet for so long.

“I-I’m sorry I-I’m gonna g-go-” Akira then turned to try to get off the bed only for Ryuji to pull him back on.

“W-Wha-” and before Akira could finish speaking Ryuji pulled his face close and attempted to kiss him only for him to miss and hit the side of Akira’s lips, Ryuji pulled away and looked at Akira, his eyes wide and teary.

“S-Sorry! I didn’t know what to say- a-and you were about to leave and I just acted on impulse like I always effing do like an idiot and I-” Ryuji stopped, took a deep breath, and calmed down since he didn’t want to say anything stupid and just upset Akira more.

“I don’t hate you.”

“…..You don’t?” said Akira in a hopeful tone.

“No, I don’t, I mean I did just _kiss_ you.”

“Yeah….you did…” said Akira as he smiled and touch the place where Ryuji kissed him.

“S-So like….does this mean we’re like...a thing now? Do you even wanna be a thing?”

“Ryuji I don’t think I would have confessed to you if I didn’t want to be ‘a thing’ with you.” said Akira with a teasing smile.

“Yeah, you’re right…”

“You wanna try kissing me again?”

“Yeah….sure…” said Ryuji despite his cheeks going red, they both leaned in and shared a gentle kiss, they pulled away, looked at each other and smiled, both of them had never felt happier than they did right now.

“I love you, man.”

“I love you too Ryuji.”

“You wanna show me around town now?”

“You asking me out on a date?” said Akira with a cocky smile.

“Hell yeah I am!”

“All right then let’s go, I know a really good beef bowl place that you’d love.” sad Akira as he got up from the bed and headed towards the door.

“Oh, sweet!!” said Ryuji as he quickly followed behind Akira, the two left the house and walked to Aiya Diner hand in hand, talking happily the whole way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my head I like to play around with what Akira's Mom is like and I really like this version of her so I'll prob use her again in the future


End file.
